Historical Landmarks

c.1200 BC Emergence of Thrace as an organised state.

356 Philip of Macedonia conquers Thrace.

681 First Bulgarian Kingdom.

855–62 Cyril and Methodius lay foundations for the Cyrillic alphabet.

865 Christianity adopted as state religion.

927 The Bulgarian Empire reaches its zenith under Simeon the Great.

1018 Emperor Basil II conquers Bulgaria and makes it part of Byzantium.

1185 Second Bulgarian Kingdom created.

1396 Bulgaria becomes part of the Ottoman Empire.

1491 Rila Monastery decorated.

1732 Rozhen Monastery rebuilt.

1876 April Uprising by nationalists put down by Turkey.

1877 Russo-Turkish Wars of Liberation.

1878 Bulgaria declares independence from Turkey.

1879 Sofia becomes capital of Bulgaria.

1912–13 Balkan Wars: Bulgaria, Serbia and Greece unite to defeat the Turkish Empire before fighting each other over the spoils.

1914 Bulgaria sides with the Axis powers in World War I.

1923 Military coup overthrows left-leaning government.

1935 Tsar Boris III declares an absolute monarchy.

1941 Bulgaria enters World War II on the side of Germany.

1944 Soviet Union conquers Bulgaria. Communists take power in 1946.

1953 Todor Zhivkov becomes leader of Bulgaria.

1955 Bulgaria is a founding member of the Warsaw Pact and Comecon.

1978 Bulgarian agents kill émigré dissident Georgi Markov on Waterloo Bridge in London by stabbing him with a poisoned umbrella.

1989 More than 250,000 Turks flee to Turkey; Zhivkov dismissed.

1990 Reformed Communists win general elections.

2004 Bulgaria joins Nato.

2007 Bulgaria joins the EU on 1 January.

2010 Bulgarian Irina Bokova becomes first woman to head Unesco.

2017 Former mayor of Sofia Boyko Borisov becomes prime minister for the fourth time.